Redefining Faithfulness

Ministering: Pastor I.S James

Topic: Redefining Faithfulness

Text: Matt. 25:14-30

Matt. 24:1 to 26:5 captures one conversation between Jesus and His disciples.

He isn’t just addressing His immediate topic of discourse alone (the state and future of the temple), but a plethora of different issues. He was addressing the issue of the temple’s magnificence and destruction, His imminent coming, the Tribulation and His 2^nd coming.

We can break down Jesus message in this passage into two parts:

1. Be expectant and attentive after My ascension for my return. (Matt. 24:36-44)
2. While you’re attentively focused on my return, be dutifully effective in the work I’ve committed into your hands. (Matt.

There are two parables in Matt. 25, the message of the 1^st one (vv. 1-13) is to let us know that a Christian’s internal disposition is to always be on fire for God. It’s your personal responsibility to make sure you are and remain on fire for God, ensure that you don’t succumb to fatigue or burn out.

The 2^nd parable tells us that while we are working to ensure that remain on fire for God, we need to be busy in the work He’s committed into our hands.

1 Tim. 5:8

While you’re working on ensuring that you have the fire burning, you ought to realise that you need to be productive. No matter how intense your spiritual life is, if you’re not productive, your spirituality is in vain.

(Matt 25:21-23) See here that God said the exact same thing to the servants who received 5 and 2 talents. It’s not in how much you receive, but in how well you do with what you’ve been given.

Notice that the foolish virgins in the previous parable and the unprofitable servant ended up in the same place – outer darkness.

Here are some points to note in this parable:

1. Talents sum up the totality of everything the LORD has deposited into you (special gifts, callings & abilities) when you were created.
2. Every servant was gifted according to his or her abilities. So, focus on your own abilities and not those of others.
3. The unprofitable servant spoke the longest.
4. The unprofitable servant lost his talent while the others increased in their gifting.
5. The unprofitable servant was described as wicked and lazy. He then suffered the same fate as unbelievers (v. 26)
6. The good and faithful servant knew what exactly they had to do with what they had been given. They traded effectively.

• The word “traded” in Greek is translated as ERGON (which means to toil, labour, trade, put in effort)
• We Christians today seem to have the wrong impression that we God will prosper us when we’re sitting back with our feet up. He is only going to bless your labour.
• Our mindset should be one of trading with the intent to make profit.

When will the events of this parable occur in our lives? They are actually overlapping between now and the afterlife.

Before now we had equated faithfulness to being reliable, dedicated or dependable. However, we can see that it goes beyond that from this parable.

God wants our lives to be productive, there has to be something traceable to your existence. Just being a Christian isn’t good enough; you have to be effectively productive.

Jesus isn’t just talking about being busy, but being effectively productive. It should be such that everyone that comes into contact with you is edified.

God has endowed every servant of His (every Christian) with the ability to be productive.

There’s a slight difference between an entrepreneur & a businessman. An entrepreneur is associated with birthing something new that solves an existing problem in society.

A businessman is someone who sees an opportunity in the marketplace and exploits it to make money/profit.

The major difference between an entrepreneur and a salary earner is just one word – RISK.

You’re not going to make the desired appreciable impact in the place of business if you don’t step out of the boat. Take the risk and be an entrepreneur!